The story is told through a character who introduces himself as Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey). He tells an FBI agent (Powers Boothe) of his childhood – a family of three: father (Bill Paxton) and his two sons. Initially a happy family, things turn for the worse when the father begins to experience a series of religious visions, prompting him to commit a series of gruesome murders. As the father’s insanity escalates, his two sons are forced to confront their own sense of right and wrong.

Had Elijah Schkeiban succeeded in his copyright case against James Cameron over the blockbuster film Avatar, he might just have been in line for a large payout. However, a US judge yesterday dashed the novelist and screenwriter’s hopes of securing a share of the film’s $2.7bn (£1.7bn) box-office gross by throwing out the case. Cameron’s lawyers had successfully argued that it is not possible to copyright such elements as a “weak hero” and a plot twist in which “the bad guys attack the good guys”, reports The Wrap blog.

Sadly, this newest adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic ‘Anna Karenina’ does not even come close to capturing the spirit of the novel, especially in terms of fully conveying the passion and love between, and the ensuing tragedy of, the main characters. Therefore, I will try to review this film having solely in mind the director’s take on the novel, ignoring as much as possible the discrepancies between the novel and the film, otherwise it would be a never-ending task.

‘Caramel’ is the first feature film of a Lebanese director Nadine Labaki which follows the lives of five Lebanese women, three of which are working in a beauty salon ‘Si Belle’ in Beirut, Lebanon. Each of the five women has her own problem: Layale (Nadine Labaki) has the affair with a married man; Nisrine, soon to be married to a man from a strict Muslim family, does not know how to tell him he will not be her first; Rima seems to be attracted to women; Jamale, a separated mother of two, fancies herself as a great actress; and, finally, Rosa, an elderly tailoress, experiences insecurities as she falls for a new salon customer. Despite being from different social and religious backgrounds, the women share close friendship, which helps them get through many life difficulties.